Delivering on the Dream: A HOW-TO KIT for Sponsoring a Direct Selling Fair Delivering on the Dream: A HOW-TO KIT for Sponsoring a Direct Selling Fair TABLE OF CONTENTS Dear Women’s Business Center Director 3 How to Use This Kit 5 Why Sponsor a Direct Selling Fair? 6 Ensuring Your Event’s Success 7 A Master Plan for Organizing and Hosting Your Direct Selling Fair 9 Appendices 12 A. Case Study in Sponsoring a Direct Selling Fair 13 B. Sample Case Statement for Creating Buy-In from Key Stakeholders 18 C. Master Plan: Implementation Timeline 22 D. Listing of Potential Exhibitors 25 E. CIWBC Sample Exhibitor Package Materials 31 F. CIWBC Sample Marketing Materials 36 G. Sample Evaluation 39 Notes 41 Copyright © 2007 Direct Selling Education Foundation DEAR WOMEN’S BUSINESS CENTER DIRECTOR: s a Women’s Business Center entrepreneurial training expert, you are familiar with developing, designing, and delivering resources that A advance your clients’ dreams of becoming self-employed. This kit adds one more toolbox to your repertoire: a complete guide to sponsoring a unique business opportunity—a direct selling fair. A direct selling fair is like a job fair—they both offer income opportunities. But in a direct selling fair, the exhibitors are companies that sell goods and services directly to consumers—companies that are actively recruiting direct selling representatives. Direct selling, as the Central Indiana Women’s Business Center (CIWBC) learned, is a match for clients who want to be self-employed, but who do not have a specific business idea or who lack the capital to launch a business. In March 2006, the CIWBC sponsored a direct selling fair. It was an unqualified success: more than 35 unique companies exhibited at this trade show event, and more than 250 individuals participated. The event: ■ showcased CIWBC clients who earned livelihoods as direct selling representatives and who presented testimonials about increasing income for their families and learning how to become business owners; ■ offered educational programs on the merits, opportunities, and success stories of direct selling; and Did you know? ■ introduced CIWBC clients to members of direct selling ■ In 2005, 14.1 million people in the United States companies who are members of derived self-employment income from direct selling. the Direct Selling Association and ■ Most of these direct salespeople—82.2%—are who embody ethical direct selling women, and 76% are married. practices. ■ Most people become direct sales representatives to After the event, make additional income, and the majority (87.3%) are in the business part-time. ■ more than 100 individuals ■ Direct selling companies brought in $30.47 billion in completed reply cards asking for the U.S. in 2005. more information about direct selling and its global market ■ More than 74% percent of the American public has opportunities, opportunities that purchased goods or services through direct selling were provided by training companies. engagements at CIWBC; ■ One in eleven entrepreneurs is a woman. Source: Direct Selling Association (http://www.dsa.org/pubs/numbers/). Accessed April 15, 2007. 3 ■ more than 25 existing direct selling associates visited CIWBC for one-on-one business counseling and advanced workshops to learn how to grow their business; ■ more than 18 companies identified independent representatives who could work with CIWBC clients and potential business partners to introduce their products to a “new” ethnically diverse customer population; and ■ six companies established an Indiana sales presence. These results could be your results. Sponsoring a direct selling fair for your clients who dream of self-employment but who have not been able to overcome traditional barriers to business ownership could be the first step to their financial success. Your organization already supports entrepreneurial development among women as a way to achieve economic self-sufficiency, create wealth, and participate in economic opportunity. In your portfolio of entrepreneurial training curricula, consider sponsoring a direct selling fair and give your clients the means to make their self-employment dreams come true. The AWBC–DSEF partnership is committed to providing economic choice and investing in vibrant communities. This “Business in a Box” is a pragmatic example of how we deliver on the dream. Yours sincerely, Ann Marie Almeida Robin Diamond President & CEO Program Director Association of Women’s Business Centers Direct Selling Education Foundation Camden, ME Washington, DC www.awbc.biz www.dsef.org “Direct selling is now the sales distribution of choice for companies. And for clients, it’s a viable option for self-employment.” Sharon O’Donoghue, Director, Central Indiana Women’s Business Center, Indianapolis 4 How to Use This Kit Check out “Why Sponsor a Direct Selling Fair?” to see how this kind of event can benefit your clients and your organization. Explore! ■ A case study of the Central Indiana Women’s Business Center (Appendix A) lets you see, close-up, how one organization successfully launched this unique program idea. Their case statement (Appendix B) can be customized to sell the idea to your stakeholders. ■ “Ensuring Your Event’s Success” gives you a heads-up on partnering with other organizations to ensure maximum outreach and leverage for your organization. ■ Ready-to-use checklists (see “A Master Plan” and Appendix C) help you get started and stay organized as you plan your event. ■ A list of potential exhibitors (Appendix D) makes it easy to begin recruiting the companies who can make a difference to your client’s goals for self-employment. ■ Sample program materials (Appendices E and F) can be customized to fit your exhibitor registration and publicity needs. ■ A sample evaluation form (Appendix G) provides a customizable template for measuring your success and for collecting testimonials for use in future program publicity and grant proposals. ■ Sidebars scattered throughout highlight program benefits and “lessons learned” that you can apply to your own program planning. Adapt and share. The materials in this kit are templates that can be customized and adapted to your own program planning process. Feel free to share these ideas with other organizations dedicated, as you are, to advancing women’s entrepreneurship—and watch lives change . 5 Why Sponsor a Direct Selling Fair? omen are seeking self-employment as a source of household income and economic vitality. But they experience barriers to realizing their dream: W they may lack a viable business idea, and they may lack information or education about self-employment opportunities that have proved successful for women “I’d like to find out and the access to capital to launch a business venture. more about direct sell- ing … it would be Direct selling opportunities could be a match for your clients who don’t have viable helpful if we could business ideas, previous business ownership experience and skills, or financial have an event that resources. A direct selling fair allows your clients to meet with direct selling companies allowed us to learn and to participate in informational programs about self-employment. It opens doors to more about their serv- what some of your clients have dreamed of all their lives: being their own boss, and ices and products, the mastering their financial future. opportunities of direct selling, the myths Sponsoring a direct selling event can benefit your clients by about the legitimacy ■ helping them learn more about direct selling opportunities “all in one place”; of direct selling all under one roof … just ■ connecting them to the basic yet essential banking services they need to start a business; like a job fair.” ■ offering education programs that help clients improve their business ownership skills, Erin A., Indianapolis, IN such as record keeping, cash flow, marketing, and sales; ■ assisting those who wish to take a particular product into a new ethnic market become independent representatives of direct selling companies; and ■ providing a “structure for success” by identifying business ideas that are essentially a “business in a box.” Your Women’s Business Center can also benefit from sponsoring a direct selling fair: ■ The event will create news coverage that can help recruit new clients and raise income for your Center’s programs. ■ You’ll increase public awareness of your organization as an economic resource for women in your community. ■ By raising your organization’s profile, you position yourself as a worthy partner for future corporate sponsorships. “Women who have never owned a business lack ‘business ownership skills.’ Direct selling companies offer first-time business owners experience in a low-risk, structured environment with an already ‘branded’ product. And the companies provide the marketing materials and a ‘sales starter’ kit.” Sharon O’Donoghue, Director, Central Indiana Women’s Business Center, Indianapolis 6 Ensuring Your Event’s Success “ lan your work and work your plan” is probably one of the surest routes to success for any new venture. Creating a master plan for organizing and P hosting your direct selling fair is addressed in the next section of this kit. Another success factor, however, is to get support from like-minded people, who are committed to serving clients like yours, and showing how their involvement can be a win-win for everyone. You can tap many resources to ensure the success of your direct selling fair. The following groups, for example, assisted the Central Indiana Women’s